- Check against delivery -

Chair,

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia*, Montenegro* and Albania*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and Georgia, align themselves with this statement.

The European Union wishes the NGO Committee a successful resumed session.

We continue to call on all members of the Committee to be guided by the sole consideration of the general interest when reviewing applications and to abstain from using Resolution 1996/31 for the pursuit of national or politicized objectives, as it is frequently the case now. The wrongful practice of repetitive and meaningless questioning, which leads to unjustified delays to applications, disproportionately affecting NGOs working on specific issues, including human rights, as we have witnessed once again during the May 2021 session, tarnishes the reputation of the NGO Committee. We ask once again members of the Committee to end this dilatory practice.

The European Union also notes with concern that a significant number of government-affiliated NGOs continue to ask for consultative status.

We reiterate our call for the daily Q&A session to be foresee the possibility for the NGOs to intervene online if they wish to do so. This would allow the direct participation of more NGOs from all regions.

The EU also reminds the role of ECOSOC to review and if necessary reverse erroneous decisions taken by the NGO Committee.

For the current session, where the Committee will consider 650 new and deferred applications, the European Union sees no justification to delay further a number of applications that have been pending for a very long time, including Non c’è pace senza giustizia, Associazione Luca Coscioni, the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation, the Inimõiguste Instituut and the International Dalit Solidarity Network

Chair,

The EU calls upon ECOSOC members to improve the rules governing the functioning of the NGO Committee towards more transparency, inclusiveness and accountability, including through limits to deferrals and a process to reconsider arbitrary or erroneous deferral or denial decisions, as well as to introduce term limits for membership of the Committee. In view of the election in April next year for the 2023-2026 term, we call on ECOSOC members to vote only for candidates with positive track records in regard to civil society access and participation at the UN. Finally, we reiterate our call for the NGO Committee to organise a round of consultations with NGOs on the functioning of the Committee.

I thank you.

* The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.